


Nightmares and Daytime Troubles

by MissGuenever



Series: Extra Cargo [2]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Crew as Family, Flashbacks, Gen, Nightmares, Spanking, Tea is a cureall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22551580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissGuenever/pseuds/MissGuenever
Summary: Another dabble in the Extra Cargo 'verse: Crew is a family. A not so fluffy look at nighttime horrors; and daytime head banging.  A day in life in a spaceship.
Series: Extra Cargo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1475975
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

The rollers were getting ready to crest the hill; at least that is what the scout said. They needed to stop the rollers from cresting because if they did it was all over. An explosion rocked the ground near his position; a little too close to comfort. “Move out!” Mal barked at his squad as missiles lit the sky. “We’ve gotta stop those gorram rollars.”

“Yes, Sir.” His second in command barked back at him. “Hutchins, Yao you’re with me.”

Sgt Reynolds watched as Zoë headed into the hellhole that was this battlefield. Some nitwit had given it the oh so cheerful name ‘Operation Grand Ballroom.’ The sky lit up as the Alliance rained down hell around their position. The ground was shaking as they impacted one after another faster than he could count. He could hear a scream as someone was hit by something; and sent up a prayer that their death was fast. Mal turned to the three soldiers with him in the makeshift command post. “Hold this position. Got it.”

“Yes, Sergeant.” Came from all three of them. A new recruit named Bendis, and two slightly more seasoned soldiers a girl named Lebedev, and a kid who hadn’t started shaving yet by the name of Facciano or something like that. His accent was so thick no one could understand him.

“Hold this position.” Mal emphasized one more time before grabbing a rifle and heading out to try and take out what he could of the Alliance squad behind the rollers. If he could take out their position it would lessen the damage they could do to his squad. Around him he could hear bullets flying; the whining of seekers overhead; and his heartbeat in his ears. He could smell fear in the air; and knew that some of it was his. 

A hand grabbed his shoulder and he turned narrowly missing being hit by roller round. “Mal, Mal.”

“Damn it Lebedev; I told you to hold.”

“Mal, wake up. You’re having a dream.”

Captain Reynolds opened his eyes to see Inara standing over him. He looked around he’d falled asleep at the dining table while he was cleaning his weapon. The parts were spread out on their piece of leather; Caroline was drawing with River in the common area before lessons. Wash and Zoë were keeping an eye on them. 

“You were muttering in her sleep; something about holding and Lebedev. Who’s Lebedev?”

Mal closed his eyes for a second; he really didn’t want to answer that question. Golensa Lebedev. An interesting woman; the mother of his daughter, he looked over, and caught Zoë’s eye. She nodded knowingly; understanding as only another soldier can. And she knew who Lebedev was; Golensa Lebedev.

Wash looked up and saw the look pass between the two of them. This look he understood; he’d held Zoë many nights when her demons became too much for her to bear alone and she’d woken up shaking, sweating, and sometimes screaming.

“Sorry; I must have dozed off.” Mal ran his hand through his hair.

“Would you like a cup of tea; I was just making myself one.” Inara understood nightmares; she might not have been a soldier. But, she was a companion.

“Thanks.” Mal tried to look casual; but, Caroline coming on board had brought back old nightmares for him. Images he’d been in no hurry to see ever again; and that he’d hoped had been buried forever. “Little one was up last night; nightmares.”

“Mmm…” Inara nodded as she placed the cup of fragrant jasmine tea by Mal and walked over to look at what the girls were drawing.


	2. She Was Horrid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, if I was rewriting and editing again. I’d put this as my new chapter 8b right after When She Was Good. But, I suppose it could go really anywhere towards the end of the beginning chapters; but after the intro chapters.

When she was good she was very, very good; but, when she was bad she was horrid! Kaylee remembered the poem from when she child. Her mom used to say it about her and brothers. Well, except Ma would say he, she or they were horrid – depending on whom she was talking about.

“I ain’t eatin’ it.”

“Caroline, that’s breakfast. You don’t got much choice. What’s the Cap’n goin’ ta say?”

“Ain’t eatin’ that.” Caroline responded to Kaylee pushing the protein porridge away. “It’s gross. Tastes like pi gu, ass. An food taint that color. Ain’t natural, foods not grey. Only purple belly food is that color.”

Jayne looked up from sluping up his mush. “I ’gree with mini-Mal; but, its food. Better then goin’ hungry.”

Caroline stuck her spoon in the bowl and pulled it back out watching the grey stuff slide off it in unappetizing clumps. “I’ll go hungry then.”

“Xin gan, Cap’n said if’fn you didn’t eat it for breakfast you was eating it for lunch.” Kaylee said almost begging Caroline to eat. It had become the morning fight, the porridge.

Simon said he’d test her blood in a month or so and see if her blood counts were high enough so that he could give her a couple of vaccines and they’d call it all good. Because Serenity’s diet consisted of a lot of molded protein it gave everyone else enough vaccines and vitamins that they didn’t need shots; but, because Caroline had never had any vaccines she needed more of them. So porridge it was; and a fight it was becoming to get her to eat it!

“Nope. Ain’t eatin’ it.” The set of Caroline’s eyes and chin made Kaylee and Jayne both think of Mal when he set his mind on something.

“Come on, nian qing de, young one, eat your breakfast and then you can do fun stuff with River and me.”

Caroline was getting really really agitated. She’d managed to keep the Cap’n up for a chunk of the night with nightmares. He’d told that to Kaylee when he’d been getting a cup of coffee. And Kaylee could see Caroline wasn’t in a great mood, lack of sleep and bad dreams would do that to a little girl in a still kind of strange environment. 

“I.” Caroline hit the table with her spoon; punctuating each word. “Ain’t. Eating. That. Shit.”

“Language; Caroline.” Kaylee’s eyes narrowed a little. “Doc says you gotta.”

“Don’t care what that ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng, frog humping son of a bitch, says. I ain’t eatin’ it!”

Mal walked in just as Caroline was calling Simon all kinds of interesting things. “Caroline; you best quiet that mouth. I will wash it out with soap tao shen, naughty child.”

Caroline’s temper snapped and she picked up the hated bowl of porridge and chucked it at the wall. The bowl broke into three pieces and little chunks of grey porridge flew around common area. The little girl’s eyes widened and she flew from the table sprinting towards somewhere. Kaylee guessed it would her hidey-hole in the cargo bay.

Caroline saw the look in her ba’s eyes and knew that she needed to get to out of the common area really fast. A couple days ago he’d whupped her britches when she’d punched the fong luh, loopy in the head, doctor in the face. So she ran. Ran for her special place.

Mal reached out and grabbed Caroline around her waist as she tried to flee. “Eht. Eht. Little one. Nian qing de. You’re not going anywhere.”

Kaylee looked at her Captain and at the small struggling girl in his arms and fled the scene. She knew how to deal with her brothers. She knew how to deal with Jayne and his rough ways. She knew how to deal with River and her sometimes tetched ways. She knew how to relate to Shepard Book and his need for spiritualism. She could understand Inara and her sensual gracefulness; but, dealing with her captain, and his daughter who was in the midst of full-up tantrum was not something she wanted to deal with this early in the morning.

Serenity’s captain wasn’t too happy about being father at the moment. Fatherhood was supposed to be ice planets and cotton candy. Hair ribbons and mud pies. It wasn’t supposed to be rules, and discipline. It wasn’t supposed to be bed times and healthy meals. 

“No, no, no! Lemme go!” Caroline was shrieking as she worked herself up into a full-blown tantrum. Her legs were kicking, arms flailing, and her chest was heaving. Mal wrapped her into his arms; trapping her so that she couldn’t move; and making crooning sounds into her ear. 

“Juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan; this really is a happy day.” Mal thought to himself as he carried Caroline over the rug in the common area. “What was Dr Spock’s advice on tantrums? Oh, yeah. Put them somewhere they can’t hurt themselves and let them go.” He laid her down on the carpet and went back over to the dining area and started picking up the rest of the breakfast things. Caroline was going to clean up her mess and then they were going to have a little discussion. “Buddha, why couldn’t this be yesterday? She’d been a little angel all day”

Mal washed everyone’s breakfast dishes, even though he knew that eventually everyone would wash their own. He needed to keep busy until his daughter cried herself out. Dr Spock said that almost eight was really too old for tantrums; but, that major emotional upheaval could cause children’s ability to deal with frustration, anger, and change to decrease. Or some such gao se like that.

Jayne walked into the common area, grabbed a snack and shook his head. “What’d Mini-Mal get herself all worked up ‘bout this time?”

“Porridge.”

“Huh, can’t say I blame her. Stuff tastes like a gorram hou bi wa, monkey arm pit.” And with that he headed out find someplace a little quieter. 

Mal looked longingly at Jayne’s departing figure. It would be really nice to have a little piece and quiet. He turned his head towards Caroline; the fruit of his loins River had called her last night. She seemed to be quieting down, finally. “Come on baby girl.” Mal told her; trying to croon soothingly as he picked her up “Let’s put you back to bed for a little while.”

Caroline snuggled into his neck, now that she was all cried out. It made Mal really happy that she seemed to be starting to trust him. He started walking towards their quarters and out of the corner of his eye saw that her eyes were closing. That tantrum had taken a lot out of her. He was just about to head into their quarters to lay her down for a nap when Kaylee came bounding down the hall. 

“Cap’n, Cap’n. I gotta pull apart the inertial regulators so steering is going to be mushy for a while.”

Mal nodded and gestured toward the mostly asleep child in his arms. Kaylee nodded in agreement. 

“Cried herself out.” It wasn’t a question; but, a statement. Kaylee had watched enough children in her life to understand what had happened.

“Yuh, huh” Mal swung down into the compartment he shared with Caroline and laid her down in her bed; pulling the covers up over her small body. He’d have to talk to her about the tantrum later; they were not going to become a habit of hers. But, first he needed to talk with Kaylee.

An hour later and Kaylee had taken apart the inertial regulators and had explained what was wrong in Captain dummy-speak; so Mal at least had a clue of what was wrong. Wash was helping the perky mechanic with the seemingly endless web of wires that made up the regulator system. It was an electronic mechanical interface of some sort that Mal had no desire to understand. That was after all why he’d hired a genius mechanic! 

He headed towards their compartment to check on Caroline. How was he going to deal with this?

“Bu mian zhi ye chang jui jiac zhi ren xin. Only one who does not sleep learns how long the night is.” River warbled at him as she wandered down the passageway. 

Mal wrinkled his brow at her retreating figure. Well, he certainly understood what she was saying; last night had been a really long night. Girl might be a bit fractured in the brain-pan; but, she was creepy on target with her observations he thought as he swung down into his quarters.

“Hey ba.” Caroline looked up from her bed where she was flipping through the pictures in the book she’d gotten on Hillard. “You gonna read to me?”

“Not right now.” Mal sat down next to his daughter and took the book from her “We gotta talk about your behavior this morning. You know better than to throw tantrums.”

“Ain’t fair I gotta eat that grey gao se.” Caroline’s lip jutted out.

“You best be mindin’ your language. Ain’t gonna tell you again.”

“It ain’t fair it tastes like pi…” At the look she was getting Caroline snapped her mouth closed and instead finished “like like Jayne’s socks.”

“And the throwin’ things?” Mal figured he’d give her a chance to explain herself.

“I don’t like that stuff.”

Great, just great she was going to be stubborn about it. He pulled his daughter over his lap. “You ain’t gonna like everything that happens in life.” Mal closed his eyes for a second and smacked Caroline on the bottom “That don’t mean you getta throw things when you don’t get what you want.”

He smacked her bottom again and again until she was sobbing and promising to be good forever and ever. Mal didn’t believe that promise for a second, he’d made the same promise to his ma many times when she’d had him in a similar position. “I don’t wanna see or hear ‘bout you throwin’ things you ain’t supposed to be throwin’. Dong ma?” 

“Uh huh.” Caroline whimpered in between sobs. 

Mal laid a couple more swats to her bottom and then gathered up his little girl into a hug letting her cry into his red shirt. When she finally settled down he stood her on her feet. “No more tantrums, okay?”

Caroline nodded. She really didn’t want another spanking.

“Go on; you’ve got some cleaning to do.” He kissed his daughter on the top of her head and pointed up at the hatch. “You’re gonna clean up that broken crockery, and the rest of the common area.”

Caroline nodded and slowly climbed the ladder. When she was out of sight Mal sank down on her bed and put his head in hands. He was exhausted; and it wasn’t even mid-morning. Parenting was hard; was he doing right thing? Putting her in a corner didn’t work; she had fun in the corner making up little games and talking to Zoey. Ma used to spank him; and he turned out alright, he shrugged and headed up to see how the repairs on the inertial regulators were going. It wasn’t that big of deal if they were down right now; but, in atmo that could be disastrous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ba -- Father  
> Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng – Frog humping son of a bitch  
> Dong ma? – Understand?  
> Fong luh – Loopy in the head  
> Gao se -- Shit  
> Juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan -- This really is a happy day  
> Nian qing de -- young one  
> Pi gu – ass  
> Tao shen -- naughty child


End file.
